This invention relates generally to paintbrushes, and more particularly to paintbrushes having a handle portion and a paint applicator portion, the handle portion and paint applicator portion being releasably connectable to each other.
In this specification, the term "paintbrush" is intended to include a paint application portion which may be comprised of bristles to form a brush, is a roller having an outer fabric surface, or is any other medium by which paint may be applied to a surface.
Paintbrushes are, of course, well known articles for applying paint to surfaces. A typical brush comprises a contoured handle which is elongate, and a plurality of bristles at one end thereof, held together to form a brush. The plurality of bristles are permanently attached to the one end of the handle, usually by means of a metal ring or bracket. Since the bristles, or brush, is permanently affixed to the handle in most paintbrush arrangements, a particular paintbrush will be limited to specific uses, and will often only be used once before being discarded. This is because many users prefer to simply discard a paintbrush rather than go through the messy and time consuming task of cleaning the brush.
The brush portion of the paintbrush may have a variety of different forms and constituents. Thus, brushes may vary in width, from, for example, a half inch width right up to a width of five to six inches and more. Smaller width brushes are suitable for painting strips, edges or corners, and are useful where finer paintwork is required. On the other hand, a much wider bristle or brush component would be used to cover surfaces with paint much more quickly, and where broader stroke and wider area application of the paint is required.
One of the problems with respect to conventional paintbrushes is that painting jobs may typically require brushes having different sizes and attributes. Thus, smaller width brushes are required for edges, while wider width brushes are required for larger surface areas to be painted. Moreover, the nature and quality of the bristles which for the brush have optimal uses in different situations. In some instances, nylon-type bristles may be appropriate, while in others, softer more natural-type bristles are needed. In yet other circumstances, the painting portion need not necessarily be a brush, but may comprise a sponge, fiber or other appropriate material. To properly carry out a painting job may therefore require a painter to have an arsenal of different shaped, sized and quality brushes, which may be difficult to store, expensive to obtain, and somewhat inconvenient to use.